Furling of working sails has historically been accomplished by direct manual manipulation of the sail, requiring that one or more of the crew go forward (in the case of a headsail) or at least out of the cockpit (in the case of a mainsail). Furling of working sails is required under various conditions, including conditions of increasing wind and heavier seas. Furling by direct manual manipulation is at best laborious and often unduly dangerous, especially when furling is required during the changing of sails at sea under heavy weather conditions. Accordingly, prior-art workers have long sought to devise both improved methods and improved sail systems in an effort to overcome the disadvantages of manual furling and changing of sails.
Before the advent of the method and sail system disclosed in my application Ser. No. 139,105, filed Apr. 10, 1980, and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,257, prior-art efforts concentrated mainly on furling of headsails and the most successful of the prior-art systems have been those based on the so-called "roller furling" approach, typically disclosed in U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,969, Hood PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,851,609, Stearn PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,419, Uecker PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,036, Crall PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,694, Dismukes
Though roller furling systems achieved rather wide acceptance, they had the disadvantage of requiring mechanical components, including elongated furling members about which the sail is rolled, bearings, special masts, etc., which are not compatible with the normal activities of the sail loft. That disadvantage was overcome by the method and sail system disclosed in my aforementioned application, and the advent of that system has created a demand for other furling systems which require only components compatible with the activities of the sail loft.